Andy Glew (glew@ichips.intel.com) wrote:: (b) Used "compilation time" as a command line parameter. I.e. I wish: I could say "take as long as 30 minutes to optimize, but not much: longer" - and have the compiler quickly produce a quick and dirty: code, and then refine it a few times by applying more and more: optimizations.: Rather than me, myself, figuring out by hand what compiler: switches to turn on and off in order to properly balance compilation: time and execution speed.

I couldn't agree more. Compilers should have a special mode where it
systematically determines what switches are best for a program. And
compile time should not be an issue at all if you use the, say, "-O4"
switch in stead of just "-O". Spec92 is the cause of a zillion
switches that no real scientist has time to care about. (I think that
only the equiv. of "-O" should have been allowed in spec95 for this
very reason, so that I don't pull out hairs wondering what I should do
to shave some time off a 3 hour run.)